The Happiness Project Part 2

I am still in the middle of reading the wonderful Happiness Project and have felt that this book more than any other book of this kind has got me asking really important questions of myself. I said in the last blog post that I was going to read the whole book and then re-read it again slowly. I said this because it is one of those books that I love in which the sections are divided into months with an aim for each. It begins in January and January is all about aiming to get the most energy, then each month has a new aim added to the past months aims. This means that little by little things will change.

The book isn’t about a certain path being followed but shows the writers experience as well as asking lots of questions of the reader. I was reading the book in our back garden last night when I started to think about how my own happiness project would go. What things would I want to work on? What would my aims be? This is from the Happiness Project website and shows you how to get started (I’ve written my own answers next to each of the questions):

“Identify your aims
The First Splendid Truth will help you identify areas to tackle in your Happiness Project.
Ask yourself:
▪ What makes you feel good? What gives you joy, energy, fun?
Going for a walk. Reading. Chatting for hours over delicious food. Making others happy.
▪ What makes you feel bad? What brings you anger, guilt, boredom, dread?
Rudeness, unfairness and cruelty in others. Being unmotivated and lazy makes me cross at myself.
▪ What makes you feel right? What values do you want your life to reflect?
I want to be someone who is fair and helpful. I want to be able to look after children in my life. I want to show that education is important and that working hard is how to get what you want from life.
▪ How can you build an atmosphere of growth—where you learn, explore, build, teach, help?”
This is a much more difficult question and the reason that I am trying to read up a lot on this subject.

The author also made up 8 Splendid Truths and wrote little notes beside them:

1. To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.
2. One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy;
One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.
3. The days are long, but the years are short.
4. You’re not happy unless you think you’re happy.
(Many argue the opposite case. John Stuart Mill, for example, wrote, “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.” I disagree.)
5. I can build a happy life only on the foundation of my own nature.
6. The only person I can change is myself.
7. Happy people make people happy, but I can’t make someone be happy, and no one else can make me happy.
8. Now is now.
So far all that I know in my own project is that I need to start in the same way. I really want to start generating some energy within myself. I need to do things and eat things that make me more energised so that I can take more on and squeeze as much out of life as I can.

I hope this gives you a little insight into the book or at least gives you some questions you maybe feel you should be able to answer. Now get to the library!

So Happy

I've been reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin recently.  I'm only on February at the moment, but can't wait to get all the way through it in one go and then hopefully go back and re-read it properly with the hope of following through on a lot of what it says.

I love getting new books and have been reading more and more like this.  So although i can't say too much about it at the moment i can defiantly tell you that this is a really good read...so get to your libraries!

What I've Been Reading

I’ve been trying to get to grips with the times my new library is open. When you move house you all of a sudden have to remember the new bin day or recyle collection day, you have to remember new transport timetables and you have to remember when your library is open and closed. Too many times have I stood outside of the closed library swearing that I had seen somewhere that the place should be open.

When I do actually remember when it’s open I find a beautiful old building with lots of portraits in it. The childrens area looks so lovely and inviting-even though I have no children I always am drawn to this area as it was where I maintained when I worked in a library-lots of little chairs and murals. I find the woman that works there so kind and helpful, and even manage to get a chat on those snowy days hardly anybody ventured outside of the house.

I haven’t been going as regularly and so have been re-reading some of the books I already own. However there are a couple I have been getting through. I’ve been reading Dracula as I have never read it and it seems like one of those books that everyone knows. It’s a bit odd reading something that is in letter/diary/note form, but I do like it. There are the cookbooks I always try to get my hands on like The Unofficial Narnia Cookbook which I got because I can’t afford the other one. It’s over £100 and I don’t think our library would stock it for me! The Unofficial Narnia Cookbook wasn’t quite what I hoped it would be, to tell the truth I hoped it would be a bit closer to Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer, but that’s just my book-hangover!

I also got my mitts on Miranda Harts book, Is It Just Me? I think Miranda divides a lot of people, but I find her good fun and very funny. I think I can relate to some of the sillyness too, so the book was just perfect for someone who loves the TV show. She does a really funny chapter on how upon leaving school you really should be an office junior or some other person low down in the pecking order as its all a bit like school anyway. When leaving University I most certainly thought this. Out in the world where there aren’t any groups demanding you be in the club. No ‘friends around every corner’, no sitting on the grass making daisy chains in the middle of the day-just because it is sunny, no spur of the moment flour and water fights. I think it’s best to be the one that can muddle through low paid jobs too, it gives you time to grow up. It is said much funnier in the book-but if you like the show then it certainly is a pick me up!

I’ve also been re-reading Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, this is one of my favourite books ever and reads so beautifully. I adore everything about this book, made even better when you think this man invented Narnia too! Well that’s what I’ve been up to on rainy weekends and snowy days. Me, on the rocking chair in the study, pot of tea on the desk and a book in my lap…good thing such pleasure is free!

I am reading..

I am reading The Fry Chronicles right now, and loving every second of them.  I do have a dictionary by my side, as without it i have to admit I'd be a little lost from page to page.  However, i do love Stephen Fry and i do love biographies.

Stephen Fry is one of my hero's, please don't think i love everything he has ever done, or find him without blame-but i do love that he is utterly bashfully British and intelligent.  QI is one of my favourite shows, and i am pretty sure to tune into anything that has him in it. 
I'm not going to write a review for this book-oh goodness, that would be a little too difficult, but i will say that it is such a lovely read, and i am so happy that i have picked up a copy of this brilliant book, its now the putting it down that's the difficult bit.....

Everything Alice

I got this book a little while ago, probably one of those amazon emails came through the inbox telling me that it was similar to some other things I adore and I caved. Either that or those crafty elves did it a bit too close to payday for me to think it over and decide I could probably get it from the library.


Read the blurb and it definitely whets your appetite:
Enter the magical world of Everything Alice, where nothing is quite as it seems! The tales of Alice in Wonderland provide the inspiration for a charming and original collection of 50 makes, ranging from a hand-sewn rabbit toy and pompom-decorated slippers to a paper craft party invitation tea set and cut-out-and-keep dress-up dolls. Who wouldn't be seduced by a red polka dot frilly apron to wear while baking cupcakes fit for a king or a heart-shaped pin board to house precious keepsakes, all designed and made by Christine Leech and Hannah Read-Baldrey. This book is the creative must-have for any Alice lover, whatever their age.

I am mostly interested by the felt slippers; they are amazing and remind me of little Elvin shoes. The red velvet cake look lovely and I cant wait to get baking, as red velvet cake is something I’d heard of loads, but didn’t have a clue what it was!
There truly are some great ideas, and every person that has either peeked at my bookshelf and enquired what this was, or has looked over my shoulder at it has fallen in love and I'm happy to be the envy of all with 'my' new ideas!
The book is just gorgeous to sit and stare at and utterly adorable. Although I shouldn’t be spending money right now as I need to be buying Christmas presents, it has given me plenty of little ideas. I love books like this in general and I am very happy to add it to my collection.

The Wonderful Weekend Book

The Wonderful Weekend Book by Elspeth Thompson is my new very, very favourite book.  I spoke about it a wee while ago here and haven't got bored of it yet.  One of the first things i do when i fall in love with a book is find out about the author, so, if you are like me have a look at her website here.  Sadly Elspeth died last year, but there are so many of her lovely pieces still floating all over the internet.  She wrote for a couple of different papers and i found some of her things there, but i still haven't got through all of the nice things on her own blogs and website, and they really are wonderful to read.  I was trying to copy the picture of Elspeth Thomson from her website, but have unfortunately only been able to copy her whole header-but have a look at the wonderful and inspirational website!

Now on to The Wonderful Weekend Book in which she talks about reclaiming lifes simple pleasures.  Every page is full of amazing ideas of free...or very close to it, activities which can cheer up one of those weekends where you know you should be doing something or other, but you just don't know what.  This appeals to me no end!  I dont DIY, i dont do things in the weekend which many people do, i dont go to the gym and i dont trawl around town looking at the same old shops (only one of the reasons i adore chairity shops), but i do want to 'do' something.  This book is the antidote!

A small part of the blurb states that the book "is about reclaiming the weekend to re-charge our batteries and relationships through enjoying the simple pleasures in life. A book packed with ideas to help restore the balance in our lives and reconnect us to the seasons."  Yes...thats it, thats exactly it.  This book has given The Husband and i many ideas, and it makes us very excited.  And thats what good books are.

Its full of ideas like gardening, open-air swimming, letter-writing, cooking with foraged food and celebrating the seasons, much more fun than the books claim that an average of six hours of each weekend day is taken up by food shopping, house and garden maintenance and other mundane tasks.

Please get a hold of this book, whether its through amazon or your local library (if its not on the catalogue you can probably talk to library staff and put in a request to buy form), so please get a hold of this book!